The formation of ‘ gong-yi ’ in modern China: A philological perspective

Economic benefit

The first usage was that ‘gong-yi’ served as a financial term representing common economic benefit. According to current historical materials, ‘gong-yi’ has been used along with the terminology of commercial firms or financial institutions since the 1880s, as in ‘Gong-yi Foreign Firm’, ‘Gong-yi Pawnshop’, ‘Gong-yi Financial Company’, etc. In order to thoroughly interpret ‘gong-yi’ when used this way, it is necessary to first clarify the nature of these institutions.

In 1882, a ‘Gong-yi Foreign Firm’ specializing in Luzon tickets opened in Shanghai (Shenbao Newspaper, 1882). The Luzon ticket was the first lottery to be introduced into China. It can be seen that selling lottery tickets was a special business of this foreign firm. In 1889, a notice on the equity transfer of a ‘Gong-yi Pawnshop’ was published in the Shenbao Newspaper, which briefly mentioned several major businesses of the pawnshop, including general accounts, official deposits, and bank transactions (Shenbao Newspaper, 1889). In 1898, a company named ‘Gong-yi Financial Company’ was registered at the US Consulate in Shanghai and published its articles of association in the Shenbao Newspaper, stating that its business involved ‘lending money with mortgages on industries and goods such as houses and land’ while elaborating on the rules of profit-making through equity participation. There was a line in its articles of association which stated that ‘You can keep the principal and interests while getting an additional bonus, which can indeed be called gong-yi’ (Shenbao Newspaper, 1898). It can be seen that ‘gong-yi’ as a financial term mainly represents the common economic benefit of fund-raisers or shareholders. The aforementioned ‘Gong-yi Tea Shop’ probably belongs to the same category.

It is worth mentioning that the earliest group I have found that was named after ‘gong-yi’ was a ‘Gong-yi Association’ mentioned in a Shenbao Newspaper article of 1886, which was initiated by merchants in Eastern Guangdong. The association raised 1.8 million liang (= 50 grams) of silver in the form of shares for military supplies, but the money was returned because of the Zhi Jun’s unhappiness (Shenbao Newspaper, 1886). ‘Zhi Jun’ is the title of local governors in the Qing Dynasty (1644–1912). ⁵ It should be noted that the association aimed at raising funds for the local army. Unfortunately, due to lack of historical materials, we cannot obtain more information about the association. Therefore, the usage of ‘gong-yi’ here is still unclear. It may indicate the economic benefit of the shareholders, or the local interests safeguarded by the association, or both.

Local public affairs

The second usage of ‘gong-yi’ mainly involves benevolent deeds of the gentry related to local public affairs. For example, in 1884, ‘gong-yi’ was mentioned in a tombstone inscription written by a senior licentiate (a scholar recommended by local governments), Feng Jisheng, to eulogize Chen Yindong, head of the Sichuan Department of the Ministry of Revenue. The original text is as follows:

He was always ready to do benevolent deeds for local people. He lectured in the Yanfeng Academy for more than ten years and especially regarded encouraging and exhorting the younger generation as his own responsibility. The Academy was almost full as so many students came from afar to consult with him. Speaking while gesturing, he was good at giving systematic and gradual guidance. His excellence and unselfishness in nature made him respected. Besides, he was always filial to his parents and friendly to his brother. After the death of his mother when he was four, he served his father and stepmother reverently and did what they wanted to do before they asked. He showed great affection for his brother-in-law. He brought up the child left by his cousin who died young and treated him like his own child. Moreover, he bore the great difficulties alone when building the ancestral temple and compiling the genealogy with clansmen. Generous and filled with a sense of justice, he lived a simple life without any assets left, but helped others as fast as birds flying. If there were weddings or funerals in the poor families of the clan, he would be generous with his money to help them. If there were lawsuits in the county, he could solve problems and settle disputes by persuasion. He also built the Yue Ting (a place for teaching rituals in ancient times) to educate people, held provincial examinations for scholars, and advocated the ‘Tujia Household Registration System’ to exempt people from corvee (unpaid labor forced by ancient rulers). All these kinds of ‘gong-yi behavior deeply benefited the local people. ⁶ (Rare Book, Metal and Stone Inscription Group of National Library, 2000)

National interest

The third usage of ‘gong-yi’ is as a legal term mainly expressing national interest during international exchanges. This usage began with the Chinese version of Elements of International Law translated by American missionary W.A.P. Martin in 1864. Its original author was Henry Wheaton, an American jurist on international law. By comparing Wheaton’s original work with Martin’s translation, we can see that the original English expressions corresponding to eight ‘gong-yi’ in the Chinese version are quite different, which can be specifically subdivided into the following three usages: the first usage is to express the common practices and habits of international exchanges. In the second volume, talking about the legal power of various countries, the corresponding English context of ‘gong-yi’ is ‘according to its sovereign will and public polity’ (Wheaton, 1836: 163). In the same volume, when discussing whether the crimes of individuals committed in other countries should be investigated again after the trial in another country, the Chinese translation reads: ‘然诸国以友谊公益, 各循常例’ [In the spirit of friendship and ‘gong-yi’, countries follow common practices] (Wheaton, 2003: 105). Its corresponding English expression is ‘the general comity, utility, and convenience of nations’ (Wheaton, 1836: 206).

The second usage is to express national interests as opposed to private interests. In the fourth volume, when it comes to the rules of war, the translation is: ‘有时交接为有益之事, 但人民不得以己之私利为公益也’ [Sometimes engagements are beneficial, but people should not regard their private interests as ‘gong-yi’] (Wheaton, 2003: 121). The original expression of ‘己之私利’ is ‘private advantage’ and ‘公益’ (‘gong-yi’) is ‘the general interests of the State’ (Wheaton, 1836: 383). In the same volume, talking about establishing contracts, the Chinese text reads: “公师有云: '倘为公益许退让地方, 毁坏民产(min-chan),必当赔偿’” [The duty of making compensation to individuals, whose private property Is thus sacrificed to the general welfare,is inculcated by public jurists, as correlative to the sovereign right of alienating those things which are included in the eminent domain but this duty must have its limits] (Wheaton, 2003: 254). ‘Gong-yi’, the opposite of ‘min-chan’ (private property), is ‘the general welfare’ in English (Wheaton, 1836: 608).

The third usage is to indicate the common interests among countries. In the fourth volume, when it comes to building lighthouses and suppressing pirates in Danish waters to safeguard the interests of passing merchants and countries’ ships, ‘gong-yi’ means ‘ … has been … beneficial for the protection of commerce’ (Wheaton, 1836: 242). In the same volume, when referring to Switzerland’s role as a neutral country in the Franco-Austrian war, ‘gong-yi’ in English refers to ‘in the service of those States’ (Wheaton, 1836: 484).

It can be seen from the above that ‘gong-yi’ in most cases is actually translated freely, and the phrases literally translated are only ‘the general interest’ and ‘the general welfare’. Therefore, the term ‘gong-yi’ first mutually translated with English is more likely to be Chinese than Japanese. W.A.P. Martin, a famous Western scholar in the late Qing Dynasty who had often been employed as the translator of the Qing court in foreign negotiations, thought that it was necessary to translate classics of Western international law. This idea was supported by the Qing court. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Qing Dynasty (1644–1912) dispatched a commissioner for proofreading the manuscript. After it was printed at the public expense, Yixin, Prince Gong also appointed four people to help revise the final revision. ⁷ Therefore, although the main translator of Elements of International Law was an American, the rigorousness and standardization of this book are undoubted. It must have conformed to the habits and norms of Chinese expressions at that time with careful consideration in that the book repeatedly uses the word ‘gong-yi’ to refer to national interests and international public interests.

‘Gong’ in ideology

Previous research studies have found that the two key original concepts of ‘gong’ appeared in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods. The first concept, taking shape in the Middle Warring States Period, meant connection with the masses, universality, and equality. In terms of usage, it was often combined with ‘ping’ (equality) to refer to a broad spectrum of earthly things, as can be found in the classic sentence: “When the great way prevails, the world is equally shared by all (‘gong’)”, forming a sharp contrast to the passive concept ‘si’ (private), meaning ‘self-centeredness’ and ‘showing others only one side to conceal one’s selfishness’. The second concept originated from oracle bone script and looked like royal palaces, referring to ancestors, elders and betters, and the monarch and imperial court. After the Spring and Autumn Period, the concept’s meaning gradually changed and denoted the official duties of the imperial court, the government, or the nation, forming the concept of ‘gong for the whole nation’ (Fan and Wu, 2002: 109–112; Jiang, 1998: 15–17; Mizoguchi, 2011: 5–7). Within all the definitions, the first concept of gong for the whole world’ has been embraced by most people throughout the Chinese ideological artery and its evolution. As Mizoguchi noted:

In China, the first group of implications was still existent in the Han and Tang Dynasties, then in the Song Dynasty, it further integrated with ideas such as heavenly principles and human desires. Even in modern China, it evolved into the idea of people’s co-governance proposed by Sun Yat-sen. The meaning of ‘gong’ in China is completely different from the Japanese ‘gong’, which merely contains ‘gong’ of the nation or government. (Mizoguchi, 2011: 7)

Firstly, they believed that the emperor, as an individual, cannot represent ‘gong’, and will probably use his power in an inappropriate way for his own benefit. Thus ‘gong’ after the late Ming Dynasty became ‘a common notion referring to the social relations between the emperor and the affluent’ (Mizoguchi, 2011: 23); secondly, the passive implication of ‘si’ was replaced by its positive meanings—the natural, justifiable, and reasonable desires of individuals, which mainly referred to the moderately reasonable desires and private properties of individuals, including not only the requirements to safeguard their interests, but also the structural thinking of myriad individual interests as well as the wish to reconstruct social justice criteria therein; and finally, the redefined ‘gong’ and ‘si’ were no longer binary opposites such as ‘eradicating si with gong’, but were integrated into a brand-new concept of ‘combining si into gong’, which was elaborated in the works of both Gu Yanwu and Huang Zongxi.

In summary, the small torrent of ideas in the late Ming Dynasty unprecedentedly put the desires of emperors at the position of ‘si’, which was in opposition to ‘gong’ standing for the convergence of numerous individual desires of the populace. As a result, ideas that the regality should be restricted were proposed, as in Huang Zongxi’s Waiting for the Dawn, published in 1663. In Huang’s (1993: 10) opinion, since there is no such ethical relation as ‘the son obtained his individual entity from his father’ between the monarch and his subjects, filial piety cannot extend to royalism. Therefore, the ethical idea of ‘the father is affectionate and the son is dutiful’ does not apply to the relationship between the monarch and his subjects which, instead, is supposed to be relatively independent and decentralized. In addition, schools shall play a role in distinguishing right from wrong and achieving the goal of local governance to supervise and restrict imperial power.

As is well-known, among all the administrative systems in previous Chinese dynasties, the county government was the most basic unit, with local elites and their patriarchal clans governing areas outside county governments’ jurisdiction. Since the Han Dynasty (202 BC–220 AD), Confucianism has tended to regard the nation as an extension of clans, and therefore the same criteria of values are shared by both the imperial court and individual clans, that is to say, being patriotic and loyal to the throne is equivalent to fulfilling one’s duty as a son. Due to the special pattern of ‘the clans and the nation sharing the same structure’, it is quite difficult to form such a public sphere separate from the individual sphere as in the Western world (Jin and Liu, 2009: 77–78). However, with the ideological trends in the late Ming Dynasty disassembling the integration of filial piety and loyalty as well as the same structure of the clans and the nation, the emergence of the ‘public sphere’ seemed to become possible.

In the early 1990s, a heated discussion took place in academia and resulted in a basic consensus that a special sphere appeared in China after the late Ming Dynasty, which was, however, not the public sphere proposed by Habermas (Chamberlain, 1993; Huang, 1993; Madsen, 1993; Rankin, 1993; Rowe, 1993; Wakeman, 1993). In Chen Baoliang’s opinion (Chen, 1991), there was an ‘Association Society’ in the late Ming Dynasty; Philip C.C. Huang (1993) referred the gentry-based sphere after the Ming and Qing Dynasties to ‘the third realm’ between the nation and the society; ¹⁴ while Jin and Liu (2009: 81) believed that this sphere dated back to the conceived society that Huang Zongxi proposed in Waiting for the Dawn, and named it ‘the public sphere of the gentry’, characterized by a clan basis and gentry representation; and the empirical studies conducted by Liang (2013) and Fuma (2005) also proved that the special sphere marked by charitable institutions has sprouted quietly since the late Ming Dynasty. Mizoguchi (2011: 117–124) integrated the abovementioned aspects, and proposed that local practices of benevolence, such as charitable institutions, guilds, civil corps, and academies, are the externalization and inheritance of Huang Zongxi’s idea that ‘local affairs should be handled by the local government’. These organizations permeated the Qing Dynasty (1644–1912) and gradually became hidden local forces.

The term ‘hidden local forces’ is used here because the ideas put forward by Huang Zongxi and other thinkers were not fully inherited from the orthodox Confucian classics in the Qing Dynasty, but instead reflected a few words ¹⁵ and concrete practices of the people. ¹⁶ Since the reign of Emperor Daoguang (1782–1850) and Xianfeng (1851–1861), an increasing number of intellectuals had obtained access to Western concepts such as democratic systems, liberty, democracy, and rights through translations by Wei Yuan, Lin Zexu, Liang Tingnan, and Feng Guifen, and regarded the modern Western systems and ideas as the best medicine with which to cure the autocratic malady, in expectation of freedom of speech and a bond between upper and lower classes, thereby achieving the utopia similar to that in the ancient period of Yao, Shun, and Yu (the three successful Chinese governors).

Absolute monarchy, constitutional monarchy, and democratic republic, the three basic modern types of government, were popularized in Chinese intellectual circles during the twenty years after the Opium War (1856-1860), and the number of people in favor of the latter two systems was growing with each passing day, constituting the majority after the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895). Actually, most literati obtained their understanding of Western democratic systems by means of secondhand information through popular books of that time. Huang Kewu (2012: 101) listed 10 of the most influential books in the late Qing Dynasty and pointed out that three books in particular—Evolution and Ethics by Yan Fu, On New Citizenship by Liang Qichao, and The Study of Benevolence by Tan Sitong—directly motivated patriots to seek changes and reforms. The classic works of Yan Fu and Liang Qichao, especially, were seen as a must for intellectuals seeking to understand the Western world, and these embodied the affirmation and extraction of ‘si’ and the deduction of ‘combining si into gong’ in their explanations of democratic political systems.

For instance, in the discussion of ‘gong-de’ (social morality) in On New Citizenship, Liang Qichao (1978: 36) expressed the intersubjective idea of fraternity and self-interest and elaborated on the idea that ‘the collective rights are a combination of partial rights, and a nation’s thoughts on rights are accumulated by individual thoughts on rights’. Yan Fu used similar expressions and quoted words of Gu Yanwu to expound on how to establish ‘min-de’ (civil morality), wishing to arouse people’s patriotism: “Therefore, we have to work in concerted efforts to advance civil morality against the current background … just as Mr. Gu Yanwu said, it is hard for people to discard their selfishness, and therefore, the reason for sages’ excellent governance is that they combined ‘si’ all over the world into ‘gong’” (Yan, 1986: 31–32). In this way, people would be motivated to concern about national affairs and develop the ability and habit of political participation and deliberation, thus gradually forming the foundation of a council. Even though the council could not operate for the time being, pilot local autonomy projects could be conducted to achieve the final goal of ‘combining numerous si into gong’ (Montesquieu, 1930: 9). The ideas of Liang Qichao and Yan Fu not only had great influence on their society, but also represented the attitudes of visionaries concerning issues such as the relation between ‘gong’ and ‘si’ and that between the community and individuals, as well as national reform methods, to a large extent.

This series of complicated changes was quite different from the situation in Japan. For the sake of conciseness, the concepts of ‘gong-yi’ in China and Japan as well as their cultural relations with the traditional concept of ‘gong’ are listed as follows (see Table 1).

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Table 1.

Comparison of semantic patterns of ‘gong-yi’ in China and Japan.

‘Gong’ in China		Semantic meanings of ‘gong-yi’	‘Gong’ in Japan
Type 1: popularity, universality, equality, average Confucianist bureaucrats’ (clan) management of local places	The whole world as one community	Local interests
	Local public affairs
	Public interests of modern states	National interests	Type 2: ancestors, elders and betters, emperors, the imperial court
Type 2: ancestors, elders and betters, emperors, the imperial court	Public interests of monarchical countries

The folk meaning of ‘gong’

According to Table 1, we can have a clear understanding of the origins of ‘national interests’ and ‘local interests’ manifested in Chinese ‘gong-yi’. How, then, can we explain the meaning of ‘economic benefit’ indicated in ‘gong-yi’? Mizoguchi (2011: 87) mentioned that ‘the world’ and ‘the country’, the two basic concepts of ‘gong’, were actually only generalized ideas of governance and order stored and inherited by scholar-bureaucrats and literati, which was quite far from the common ‘gong’ concept and failed to reflect the real lives of ‘the masses’. One specific example put forward by Mizoguchi was the ‘gong-ye’ (public property) of patriarchal clans, yet it lacked specific explanations. Chen Ruoshui also found that families and patriarchal clans were in close relation with ‘gong’ and gave a detailed explanation of ‘gong-ye’, which reads:

In Taiwan, the common property or fields used for ancestral worship are called ‘public property (gong-ye) for worship’; a similar shared patriarchal property or fields are called ‘gong-chang’, which is quite popular in the Hakka community. In Zhu’s Ancestral Rules of Chang’gou Village, Pi’ling City (Pi’ling, i.e. Changzhou City in Jiangsu Province) concluded in 1696, the public fund was named after ‘gong-ci’ (public ancestral halls). The original meanings of ‘gong-chang’ and ‘gong-ci’ were public funds for ancestral worship, but their functions were more than that, also used for patriarchal relief, education grants and outward investment. (Chen, 2006: 112)

Regarding the system of ‘shares’ in patriarchal clans, Chen (1990: 138) interpreted this as the rules of ‘the status or share formulated according to the rules of housing distribution’, which were embodied in affairs such as the ‘dismemberment of family properties’, ‘group division of households’, ‘distribution of the profits of property used for worship’, ‘rotating support for aged parents’, ‘annual rotating management of property used for worship’, ‘allocation of sacrifice obligations’, and ‘the management of the patriarchal clan’s affairs’. Zheng (2009: 202) once quoted the records of ‘various public fields and mountains’ in Chen’s Ancestral Hall in Yinchuan County of Fujian Province to explain the evolution of the housing portions of patriarchal clans into shares. Lin Yueh-Hwa (1989: 108–109) also expounded on the complicated development of the mix of housing portions and shares through the description of the conflicts of Huang’s clan in Lin’s book Golden Wing.

Faure (2009: 265) pointed out that the shareholding system was widely practiced to manage properties of patriarchal clans in the 1750s, and that this probably had to do with the prevalence of ‘chit funds’. Ye and Lin (1998: 53–65) also found that the chit funds in Guangdong Province usually took the unit of patriarchal clans and were entitled ‘X Benefits Association’. ‘Chit funds’, also known as ‘bidding funds’ or ‘united funds’ (‘Rotating Savings and Credit Association’) are a kind of ancient private lending organization scattered widely in the rural areas of China. The initiator usually acts as the leader, invites some relatives and friends to gather at the appointed time and pay a certain amount of fees and then, in turn, transfers the funds to some member by means of drawing lots or bidding to finally achieve the goal of mutual support. When all the members have finished their shifts, a period comes to an end (see Chen, 2011: 154–172; Wang, 1935).

Based on current research, the combination of patriarchal clans and chit funds was quite popular during the Qing Dynasty (see Faure, 2009: 224–225; Freedman, 2000: 118; Liu, 1993: 264–266). Actually, a ‘Triple Benefits Association’ is a kind of chit fund. ¹⁹ In this sense, the ‘gong’ in He’s ‘Public Benefits Association’ refers not only to clan affairs, but also to the shared economic profits of shareholders for the reason that the patriarchal clan itself can be regarded as a kind of ‘corporation’ (Freedman, 2000: 94–97). Faure (2009: 232) concluded that such private corporations integrated two principles—‘properties for everyone’ and ‘rotation management’—and pointed out that this system was more popular in the field of ‘management of business and public institutions’ than in the operation of public assets of patriarchal clans. Zhang (2017: 230) also indicated that the system of ‘shares’ extended to the operation of charitable country estates, local elementary schools, local barns, temple property, charitable associations, and charitable halls, and formed the rotation system that characterizes the universal practices of traditional Chinese welfare. These observations all reflect an implied extension mechanism, namely ‘social organizations beyond the limit of families’ proposed by Zheng (2009: 208), who also gave this issue insightful expression:

The family organization was not the only social organization in the social structure of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, but the most basic one. Various organizations beyond the limit of families in the Ming and Qing Dynasties evolved from or consisted of family organizations, which developed into factions among upper-level scholar-bureaucrats, associations of people with different surnames for shared properties among lower-level civilians as well as guild halls for the balanced development of certain industries and local groups among industrialists, businessmen and farmers. ²⁰ (Zheng, 2009: 208)

The implied extension mechanism is vital in that it not only proves that the ‘gong’ of joint stock contained in the ‘gong’ of patriarchal clans can extend beyond the field of clans, but also means that ‘private thoughts and behavior logic have yielded institutional social outcomes’ (Luo, 2015: 17). Therefore, the ‘Gong-yi Tea Shop’ established in 1859 may be a shareholding commercial firm.

In addition, the aforementioned ‘Public Benefits Association’, reported on in the news-flash of the Shenbao Newspaper in 1886, was also a joint-stock organization, based on the specific rules of ‘one tael [usually refers to the Chinese tael, since 1959 standardized to 50 gram and a part of the Chinese system of weights and currency] per share, four meetings per year, issuing ten thousand shares per meeting, and eight years as a period’. Financial institutions independent of clan economies, such as ‘Gong-yi Foreign Firm’, ‘Gong-yi Pawnshop’ and ‘Gong-yi Financial Company’, then emerged one by one. In fact, there were still old-style Chinese private banks and shops entitled ‘Gong-yi’ during the period of the Republic of China (1912–1949). Jianglan Street in Guangdong Province was once a gathering place of old-style Chinese private banks and Chinese pharmacies. According to the street map of 1928, the No. 88 shop was called ‘Gong-yi’. ²¹ Moreover, we can still see the sotto portico (part of the building that stretches out to cover the sidewalk) of ‘Gong-yi Cai Ji’, built in the 1930s on Zhuhai East Road, Beihai City of Guangxi Province. ²² The shareholding system was so prevalent that David Faure (2009: 232) concluded that ‘the property right in the Ming and Qing Dynasties is such a kind of collective ownership’.

From the aforementioned facts, it can be seen that the concepts of Chinese ‘gong-yi’ originated from both the ruling philosophy and ideas of ethical governance embodied in the works of scholar-bureaucrats and literati as well as the clan values and financial traditions of civil lives, and its profound changes during the Ming and Qing Dynasties merit special attention. The aforementioned accounts are summarized in Table 2.

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Table 2.

The semantic structure of Chinese ‘gong-yi’.

‘Gong’ in China		Semantic meanings of ‘gong-yi’	‘Gong’ in Japan
Type 1: popularity, universality, equality, averageConfucianist bureaucrats’ (clan) management of local places	The whole world as one community
	Local public affairs	Local interests
	Public interests of modern states	National interests	Type 2: ancestors, elders and betters, emperors, the imperial court
Type 2: ancestors, elders and betters, emperors, the imperial court	Public interests of monarchical countries
Type 3: public affairs of patriarchal clans	Public interests of clans	Economic benefits
Type 4: the economic community of shareholders	Public interests of economies

As we can see in Table 2, the ‘gong’ concept in Japan is relatively simple, merely including the second type of Chinese ‘gong’ system, namely the national ‘gong’ with regality-centered implications. As far as Mizoguchi is concerned, this structural difference directly determines the profound evolution of modern transformations in these two countries. Although the constitutional practice of the Meiji Restoration changed the state power structure, it did not radically exceed the highest-level ‘gong’ concept, namely ‘gong’ of the nation, but just made adjustments to the relation between the monarchy and the country. In contrast, China was totally different from Japan. After the late Ming Dynasty, ‘the whole world’ as the maximum of ‘gong’ gradually outweighed the royal power, and in turn evolved into resources providing regime legitimacy to modern countries (Mizoguchi, 2011: 7). In other words, the abstract ‘gong’ concept needed to be transformed into the tangible ‘national’ system. ²³ Therefore, how to reconstruct a compatible public and private relation became the logical focus of realizing the transformation, in which the logical relation and inherent tension among individuals, local places, and the state generally determined the semantic reconstruction pattern of Chinese ‘gong-yi’ after the Reform Movement of 1898.

Local public affairs

Firstly, the context of the listed ‘local benevolent deeds’ in the aforementioned Chen Yindong’s gravestone inscription can still be applied to indicating the responsibilities of traditional elites over local affairs. In 1902, it was reported in the Shenbao Newspaper that the gentry and businessmen in Guangzhou donated money to education ‘for local gong-yi’ (Shenbao Newspaper, 1902). In 1908, Li Deqing and his brother, who were gentlemen from Tianjin, established a private elementary school, which was praised as ‘beneficial to the hometown’ and ‘devoted to gong-yi’ (Zhili Education Magazine, 1908). In the same year, a gentleman in Shunde County of Guangdong Province was criticized by News Illustrated for undermining the local smoking-quitting association. The opening line of this newspaper article reads that “The gentry should be a paragon of the village, and those who not only discourage the ‘gong-yi’ cause [local benevolence] but also undermine its development are evil, which nobody will approve” (News Illustrated, 1908), reflecting the general expectation regarding the local gentry’s responsibility.

Meanwhile, with new policies introduced, a series of measures such as changing mores, building schools, starting businesses, disciplining policemen, initiating military conscription, and promoting local autonomy were widely adopted and gradually became important ingredients of local ‘gong-yi’ (public affairs). In 1905, some patriots in Xiaoshan District of Hangzhou City launched a ‘Public Benefits Association’ to improve local corrupt customs (Shaoxing Vernacular Newspaper, 1905). In 1909, a man named Wei Yongyu came back to China with his newly invented knitting machine after finishing his studies in Japan and started a shareholding factory in Jianzhou County of Sichuan Province (now Jiancheng County, Jianyang City of Sichuan Province). An essay published in The Universal Progressive Journal remarked that “As Mr. Wei is able to invent machines, we can say that he is concerned with current affairs. Nowadays, the shareholding system is more appropriate to help people discard their selfishness and work together for ‘gong-y’, so as to improve local people’s well-being, thus delivering a blessing to the poor people and the local place” (The Universal Progressive Journal, 1909). In 1911, farmers represented by Zhu Baokui in Jiashan County of Zhejiang Province established schools, and the local government complimented them: “These farmers, who make a living by ploughing with physical strength, know the importance of education, and are devoted to ‘gong-yi’ to develop education by pooling their hard-earned money” (Zhejiang Education Communique, 1911).

It can be seen that the semantic component of ‘local gong-yi’ not only inherits its original semantic meanings but also presents new connotations closely related to political transformations during the late Qing Dynasty. Furthermore, the generation of those who practiced ‘gong-yi’ were becoming increasingly diverse, including the traditional gentry, patriots, people with international educational backgrounds, and even common villagers. Actually, one core objective of the new policy was precisely to enlighten and educate civilians on the ideas that everyone is entitled to rights and ‘everyone has a stake’ in the country. ²⁵

Enlightening the people

At that time, the common channels for enlightening the masses were newspaper reading clubs and speech activities. News Illustrated reported in 1906 that when Zhou Fu, governor of Guangdong and Guangxi Provinces, passed by the southern areas of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, he saw ‘widespread domestic and foreign newspaper offices, and even slaves and pawns read newspapers’, and felt that ‘everyone is fully aware of civic obligations and gong-yi, thus being qualified for constitutionalism …’ (News Illustrated, 1906). In 1907, the Yang family in Hongya County of Sichuan Province set up a ‘Gong-yi Book House’, giving people free access to their collection of ancient and modern books. It was recorded that ‘people could read and copy as they like, and different kinds of books and newspapers were purchased to broaden people’s horizons’ (The Universal Progressive Journal, 1908). In 1911, three patriots were planning to organize a newspaper reading club at Huiyouxuan [a place for friends to gather] Teahouse in Beijing, and the Brief Introduction Illustrated (1911) praised them as ‘devoted to gong-yi’. The trend of newspaper reading began in 1898 and continued until the Republic of China was established in 1912.

It is worth noting that the cultivation of citizens included not only males, but also females. Therefore, a wave of emancipating women and developing women’s education was also on the rise in 1898. In 1903, Liu Mengyang established the ‘Independent Feet Emancipation Association’, which was later renamed the ‘Gong-yi Feet Emancipation Association’ to exhort women to give up foot-binding for free (Ta Kung Pao, 1904). ‘Gong-yi’ carried the meaning of ‘benefiting the masses’ (Ta Kung Pao, 1903). In the same year, Du Qingchi started the ‘Gong-yi Female School’ on Fengyuan West Street in Guangzhou, which was later renamed the ‘Gong-yi Female Normal School’, aiming at ‘cultivating women in aspects of virtue, intelligence and physical education and making them elites in the society as well as examples in families’ (Du, 1918). In 1906, two female patriots, Li Yiqing and Xie Baoyun, were reported on by the Illustrated Anecdote Newspaper for their launching of the Women’s Education Association, which ‘aimed at supporting women’s education and was for everything related to gong-yi’ (Yin, 1906). It can be seen from ‘benefiting the masses’ to ‘cultivating social elites’ that females were no longer completely subordinate to males. They also had rights and responsibilities for national construction and social service, and they could become patriots just like males.

This series of practices was accompanied by the prevalent Community Theory at that time, advocated by Liang Qichao. In 1902, the public notification of his Sein Min Choong Bou, founded in Yokohama, Japan, announced that ‘This newspaper focuses on education and targets the public interest and public well-being (gong-yi) of the Chinese people’ (Sein Min Choong Bou, 1902). Later, the one hundred-thousand-word book, On New Citizenship by Liang was serialized in this newspaper, presenting a systematic explanation of a complete Community Theory on cultivating citizens. This theory placed great emphasis on the cultivation of ‘social morality’. In Liang’s opinion, citizens’ disregard of ‘gong-yi’ results from their lack of social morality, which is further due to the fact that the absolute monarchy of several thousand years monopolized the whole nation (including the people contained therein) and regarded the people as the private assets of emperors (Liang, 1999c). Therefore, the task at that time was to help Chinese citizens realize the difference between ‘the nation’ and ‘the imperial court’. ‘We should be fully aware that the nation is the public property shared by everyone, while the imperial court is merely the emperor’s private assets’ (The China Discussion, 1901: 157–160). “As everyone has a share, all of us shall shoulder our responsibility and work in concerted efforts to lead the nation on the ‘Road of Gong-yi,’ which is developed domestically and competitive internationally” ²⁶ (Yu et al., 2005).

Being patriotic and gregarious

As the Community Theory became popular, the term ‘gong-yi’ characterized by being patriotic, gregarious, and unselfish gradually predominated in the ideological sphere. ‘The New Decrees During the Reign of the Qing Emperor Guangxu’, published during the New Deal period ²⁷ , listed ‘gong-yi’ as a compulsory discipline of universities and explained that ‘it specializes in teaching people laws and rituals of public interest and discouraging selfishness’. In Japan it is called ‘sociology’, and in China it is translated as ‘Community Theory’. ²⁸ In 1903, Zheng Guangong and his friends started the World Gong-yi Newspaper in Hong Kong with a special statement attached: ‘On behalf of the national citizens, this newspaper is a public instrument instead of a private one speaking for certain people’ (World Gong-yi Newspaper, 1905). Contemporaries also began writing essays to discuss what kind of practices could be called ‘gong-yi’.

In 1906, two essays on the discussion of ‘gong-yi’ and ‘kindness’ were published in Treasure Domestic Property. The former essay maintained that worshiping the Buddha with burning incense, distributing alms to monks, and freeing captive animals in temples were all ‘worthless kindness’ and that giving alms to beggars could only be regarded as ‘small kindness’, while only actions out of patriotism and humanity could be called ‘gong-yi’ (Treasure Domestic Property, 1906a). The other essay expressed the same opinions and cited a specific example: there was a rich man named Zhang Anren in Jinhua Prefecture of Zhejiang Province. He hoarded grain during the harvest and built bridges and roads during the famine to help improve the harvest, rather than opening the granary to help the poor. The author commented at the end that ‘This kind of generous behavior shows not merely kindness but gong-yi for people’ (Treasure Domestic Property, 1906b), vividly expressing the idea ‘give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime’ and regarding it as the standard by which to differentiate ‘kindness’ from ‘gong-yi’.

In 1907, Wang Bingkun’s long essay, ‘The Comparison of Contributions to Gong-yi between Confucianism and Christianity’, was published in The Globe Magazine. Wang stated:

Although Confucianism has played a dominant role in people’s mindset cultivation for several thousand years, it cannot help people discard their selfishness, from which we can see its utility and understand the reason why Confucianism lacks gong-yi. Then, how about Christianity’s role in gong-yi of those Christian countries? Countless examples of gong-yi can be listed. (Wang, 1907: 24–26)

In the end, the author indicated that emancipating slaves, helping disaster-stricken victims, establishing hospitals, and fostering orphans were all ‘small acts of gong-yi’, and only dispatching missionaries was a ‘great act of gong-yi’, which could save their souls and change their bad habits of ‘being self-centered and showing no concern for the community and the nation’ (Wang, 1907: 24). Therefore, it can be observed that at that time, people’s understanding of ‘gong-yi’ was largely influenced by the Community Theory. Based on the facts above, it can be predicted that although ideas of ‘modern gong-yi’, namely ‘teaching others to fish’ and paying equal attention to rearing and education, were proposed during the Westernization Movement (Huang and Wang, 2009), it is highly possible that these ideas were actually incorporated into the semantic structure of ‘gong-yi’ in the early 20th century, when new citizens were being cultivated.

Local autonomy

Coinciding with shaping new citizens, the political practice of fostering public participation in real governance had been popular in China since 1898. In February 1898, the Hunan Security Bureau and Hunan Society were established, which were the two earliest local autonomous organizations in modern China. ²⁹ In 1903, Gong Fazi wrote an essay in which he stated, ‘In order to teach people to develop the idea of performing social responsibilities, the government shall not [author’s note: ‘not’ may be a typo] give them the chance to get access to public affairs. In this way, they will not merely rely on the nation, and pursue personal interests regardless of the national gong-yi’ (Gong, 1903: 5). He pointed out clearly that autonomy was the basis of representative politics. Later, other writers such as Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, Zhang Qian, and Sun Yat-sen also wrote essays to discuss the relationship between autonomy and constitutionalism. Liang believed that ‘all the great forms of government advocated autonomy’ (Liang, 1999c: 682).

In 1906, Duan Fang and Liu Zhi put local autonomy on the agenda as the basis of preparatory constitutionalism. ³⁰ In the same year, an autonomous group entitled ‘gong-yi’ emerged from groups such as the ‘Jinshi Gong-yi Association’ jointly launched by the Capital General Office of Police as well as local businessmen and gentry. In this way, they hoped to connect government and business to exchange information and finally achieve favorable autonomy results (Political Art Journal, 1906). Another example was the ‘Students Gong-yi Association’ established by students studying in Japan. The association produced self-management articles for students studying in foreign countries and issued graduation certificates to preserve ‘gong-yi’ in academia (Sein Min Choong Bou, 1906). Furthermore, Chen Xunzheng, a gentleman in Ciyi (now Cixi City) of Zhejiang Province, together with others, established the ‘Cixi Fellow-Townsman Gong-yi Association’ to ‘enable local people to shoulder local responsibilities, facilitate communication and unite villagers’ (The Universal Progressive Journal, 1906), thereby paving the way for local autonomy.

At the end of 1908, the Qing government followed the example of Historical Records of Cities, Towns and Villages (in Japan) and published ‘Regulations on Local Autonomy of Cities and Townships’, specifying that ‘local autonomy specializes in the local gong-yi cause, with official governance playing a supplementary role’. The listed ‘local gong-yi causes’ involved education, sanitation, road engineering, agriculture, industry, commerce, and other fields related to the well-being of the village, town, or city. Accordingly, ‘gong-yi’ became a high-frequency term in the context of autonomy and triggered a discussion on the jurisdictions of local ‘gong-yi’ and autonomous offices (Xu, 2004: 3–4).

In 1910, it was stated in the Hunan Local Autonomy Vernacular Newspaper that local ‘gong-yi’ affairs such as education, employment encouragement, and speeches should be included in autonomy lists (Hunan Local Autonomy Vernacular Newspaper, 1910). In the same year, Yu Yurui, leader of the ‘Gong-yi Preservation Association’ in Wuchang County, announced that he would draw a clear line with local autonomous offices (Datong Newspaper, 1910). The ‘Gong-yi Seminar’ in Jiangning (now Nanjing City) also issued ‘Brief Regulations’, announcing that ‘gong-yi (public) affairs unseen or unfinished by the department of new policies would be handled by the seminar through research and cooperation’ (Jiangning Study Affairs Magazine, 1910). In 1911, the Jiangsu Governor, together with local people, drafted ‘Special Regulations of Local Autonomy Regarding Private Gong-yi Organizations’ and submitted it to the imperial court (Jiangsu Autonomy Public Newspaper, 1911a), in which six cases were specified as private causes and excluded from the public sphere (Jiangsu Autonomy Public Newspaper, 1911b). Various differences and discussions show that the roles of the departments enforcing new polices and private ‘gong-yi’ organizations were overlapping, and they also manifest the profound meaning of local co-governance at the beginning of modern Chinese ‘gong-yi’.

The rights of railways

After the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895), Japan was allowed to invest in and set up factories at Chinese treaty ports. Western powers followed suit and, one by one, began building railways and mining in China. As a result, various powers fought for railway rights and set off a frenzy of carving up China. Although the Qing government recognized the importance of building roads, it had to borrow money to build roads due to a shortage of funds and the impotent commercial circle. In January 1897, the Qing government in Shanghai established China Railway to be in charge of building roads with foreign loans. In August 1898, the Mining Railway Administration was established. The Qing government briefly changed its mind and encouraged railways to be managed by businessmen. However, only a month later, the Qing government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a joint announcement that the railway construction would be planned and controlled by the central government (Mi, 1963: 182–340). Due to such upheavals, China’s railway rights were nearly lost, which sparked great anger and caused a wave of Railway-Rights Recovery Movements to arise all over China.

The first group to protest was patriotic gentry and businessmen in Hunan, Hubei, and Guangdong provinces. In 1903, these people sought to recover the building rights of the Canton–Hankow Railway from the USA, and this marked the beginning of the Railway-Rights Recovery Movement. In the same year, the Qing government abolished the Mining Railway Administration, established the Department of Business, and empowered it to manage railways so as to encourage businessmen-managed railways (Cui, 1993; Quan, 1991; Rui, 1995). From then on, commercial railway companies were established one by one in various provinces. When they raised donations and publicized their companies, ‘gong-yi’ became a high-frequency term to stand for national interests.

In 1904, Yixi Chen, a Chinese citizen of Taishan origin residing in the USA, came back to his hometown and devoted himself to the independent movement of Xinning Railway. In 1905, Chen returned to America and made speeches to motivate overseas Chinese to invest in Chinese railway companies with the slogan ‘Advocating Gong-yi, Recovering Rights’ (Chung Sai Yat Po, 1905a). At that time, Chung Sai Yat Po praised Chen as a gregarious, ‘gong-yi-spirited patriot who could recover the rights of a town’ (Chung Sai Yat Po, 1905b). In the same year, Ninghai Port in northern Taishan City was renamed ‘Gong-yi Port’, which meant benefiting the masses. It became an important town along the Xinning Railway (Lei and Liu, 1985: 28–29; Liu et al., 1980: 30–32). Based on the abovementioned ‘gong-yi’ expressions, ‘gong-yi’ in the context of railways contains both the specific local interests and abstract collective interests.

In October 1906, the Ministry of Business was changed to the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce. In addition, the Postal Communication Department was established to take charge of ‘ships, railways, electricity and postal services’. As for building roads with loans, the Postal Communication Department was equivocal, but it confirmed that commercial railways should be nationalized, which soon triggered discussions on government control and private control of railways (Su, 2005: 1–19). Therefore, ‘gong-yi’ in the context of railways swung between local interests and national interests with increasing frequency. In 1907, Yuen-Nan Journal praised the local Public Association for its dedication to ‘gong-yi’ and its concern for local ‘gong-yi’ causes (local public affairs). However, the society mainly focused on the issue of the Burma–Tengchong Railway (Yuen-Nan Journal, 1907), which made the railway issues local affairs. In 1908, when speaking of the privatization of the Canton–Hankow Railway, Zhang Zhidong objected that provinces were merely concerned about local interests, ‘regardless of gong-yi, thus impeding the overall development’ (Zhang, 1998: 9674). From the aforementioned facts, it can be seen that ‘gong-yi’ in the context of railways swung ambiguously between local interests and national interests with the dividing line being unclear. ³¹

Economic benefits

The last kind of ‘gong-yi’ follows the aforementioned financial semantics and is used to refer to common economic benefits. In 1908, Henan Vernacular Science Journal published a ‘Gong-yi Bank’ advertisement with the full text as follows:

The Bank is called Gong-yi Bank, located in Lunan of Hufang Bridge. ³² The bank has a total capital of one million tael of silver, which can be regarded as affluent and reliable. The Bank’s business is divided into two categories, a lending business that specializes in remittances and loans on security, and a savings business that specializes in receiving sporadic deposits. (Henan Vernacular Science Journal, 1908: 2)